While millions in New York, Los Angeles, London and Central Florida checked for updates on their smartphones and televisions, a select few - mostly members of the media, including me, and about 200 demonstrators - awaited the verdict outside the Seminole County courthouse.

Circuit Judge Debra Nelson handed the case over to the all-female jury on Friday at 2:30 p.m. Soon, a trickle of demonstrators - almost all supporters of Trayvon and and his family - began arriving at the courthouse.

For most of the afternoon and into the evening, the group waved signs and chanted about Zimmerman's guilt. By 6 p.m., the jury quit for the night.

The next morning, a greater number of demonstrators, including more than two dozen Zimmerman supporters, came to courthouse unaware the verdict wouldn't come for another 13 hours.

For the most part, the opposing sides stayed on opposite sides of the designated "Free Speech Zone" set up outside the courthouse.

While peaceful throughout the day, the two sides clashed in the afternoon when an shouting match erupted. Seminole County deputies, who patrolled the area throughout the duration of the trial, stepped in a few times to calm the crowds.

After a day that saw temperatures soar into the mid-90s, night fell on Central Florida. And in the darkness, the demonstrators continued yelling for justice.

Then at around 10 p.m. Saturday word spread that the jury had a verdict. The crowd, which by this point was almost all Trayvon supporters, huddled together and prepared for the news. Pointed at them were dozens of cameras ready for the reaction.

A voice rang out: "They found him not guilty."

At first it didn't seem the crowd, which had spent almost two days pleading for a guilty verdict, knew what to make of the outcome. They seemed shocked.

Then came the tears, the yelling, the anger.

The few supporters of Zimmerman I could find after the verdict weren't cheering or happy about what had happened. But they said the jury made the right decision by finding Zimmerman not guilty.

The trial of George Zimmerman sparked a national conversation on guns and race, and Americans will continue to debate the outcome for years.

But one key point in the debate is clear: The death of Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012, and the events that followed have forever changed Central Florida.